88. Enable more simultaneous Downloads in Firefox

If you prefer to use Firefox (which, like IE7 defaults to only two persistent connections to a given server), here's the Firefox-approved version of the above tip:

Open Firefox and type 'about:config' in the address bar.

Scroll down to the 'network.http.max-persistent-connections-per-server' entry.

Double click the entry and change the value to anywhere from 4 to 10.

Restart Firefox.

89. Fix large file copying problems in Windows Vista

Out of the box Vista can have some issues with large file transfers over a network. This is because of a new Vista feature called 'receive window auto-tuning'. In a nutshell, this allows Vista to automatically scale the size of each packet of data it requests and receives over a network connection to suit the available bandwidth. This is a good thing. However, older networking hardware may have issues with this newfangled technique and refuse to co-operate, leading to dropped file transfers, slow performance and other weirdness.

If you are experiencing network issues with large file transfers and occasional connection problems with applications like Messenger, we recommend that you restrict or disable the receive window auto-tuning feature.

To do this, open a command prompt window with administrative privileges (see Tip #20).

Type 'netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=restricted' and press Enter.

If this fixes your issues, relax. If you continue to have networking problems, open another administrative prompt and type 'netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled'.

90. Disable IPV6 in Windows Vista

Windows Vista is the first Microsoft operating system to feature IP Version 6 as a default networking protocol. This despite the fact that essentially nothing uses it. Since each of your network interfaces is running both IPV6 and standard TCP/IP by default, wouldn't it be a good idea to disable the unnecessary protocol? We think so.

To disable IPV6 in Windows Vista:

Start Regedit and navigate to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\tcpip6\Parameters\
Right click on an empty area of the right-hand pane and choose 'new\DWORD value'.

Name the DWORD 'DisabledComponents' and give it the value '0xFF'

You will need to restart your system for this to take effect.

91. Refresh shortcut for wireless network searching

The Vista 'searching for wireless networks' screen does not have a refresh button, which can lead to frustration and anger for those to impatient to wait for the screen to refresh itself. Fortunately, hitting the F5 key will refresh the screen automatically.